The death of Fred Hall and the outbreak of the Second World War held the College back. But war would nourish a democratic spirit in a highly mobilised country which saw itself as fighting for freedom and the defeat of fascism. Crucially, the College managed to continue operating and attracted younger co-operative employees and members as well as visitors from colonies and soldiers from Poland and Canada. War would also break many of the bonds of empire as colonial peoples asserted the need for their own freedoms which posed challenges for co-operators. In these difficult times, plans for the future gestated, not least for co-operative education. As hurried adjustments and contingencies were being put in place, discussions about the purpose and principles of co-operative education surfaced. Indeed, in the long term, the war gave impetus and vitality to the felt need for a new college. Two world wars within a generation had been a punishing experience that led to demands for a different type of peace. Co-operators were able to take advantage of the centenary celebrations of the Rochdale Pioneers to raise funds to buy a new base for the College, Stanford Hall, an eighteenth-century country estate.